Communication systems, particularly those used in potentially hazardous environments such as law enforcement, fire rescue, heavy industrial, and other mission-critical environments, rely on proper portable radio operations. There is an ever increasing desire for a voice control feature in next generation public safety communication devices, such as land mobile radio (LMR) devices, that will enable users to perform certain radio control operations by using voice as an input medium to the radio device. While some speech recognition options are available on certain types of consumer LTE/broadband devices, such as cellular phones, tablets, and laptops, such voice recognition is not readily available to LMR radio applications due to the limited data rate speeds, narrow bandwidth, and environmental conditions, such as loud noise environments, within which LMR radios operate. Additionally, while speech recognition failures in cell phone operations may or may not be addressed, at the discretion of the cell phone manufacturer based on financial and other viability factors, such discretion is not deemed acceptable in LMR radio operations where the devices are so heavily relied upon for mission critical public safety communications.
Accordingly, there is a need for an optimized voice control feature that improves voice control operation of portable LMR radios in the field.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention. The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.